Piri reis in Venetian documents

Some new information from Venetian sources about the Ottoman map-maker Piri Reis.

Piri reis was a famous Ottoman seaman and geographer. In 1513 he had made a map of the world that is the most ancient extant one with the coasts of North America. In 1521 he completed the first copy of a pilot-book, the Kitab-i Bahriye, and in 1528 he made another world map. On the base of Venetian documents this paper give us other information about Piri reis's life that is still wrapped in mystery: his involvement in the Ottoman fleet activity, his acts as a privateer, his relation with Venetian authorities, his relatives and, above all, the exact date of his death that happened in Cairo in 1553 (and not 1554 as many scholars have thought till now).